thisfinecrew | Entries tagged with phone calls

When the Supreme Court has made a decision, as it has in the case of the wrongfully-deported Abrego Garcia, the response from the Executive cannot be "Nah." If there is no check on Trump, even in the case of his hand-picked court saying he's wrong, the Constitution is no longer functional.

( Letter for your Representative, written by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous )

Mods, can we get a "deportation" tag?

rydra_wong

The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) have a proxy caller system:

https://bsky.app/profile/autisticadvocacy.org/post/3lkjjufrql22x
https://proxycaller.org/

If you can't make phone calls because of disability, you can request that a volunteer make a call on an issue covered by one of ASAN's action alerts (generally disability and health-related) and provide a script for them. If you can make phone calls, you can sign up as a volunteer.

chestnut_pod

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is next on the chopping block. It takes up a truly vanishingly small amount of the federal budget, but its funding is a lifeline for museums and libraries. 5Calls has a script for you to use to tell your reps you value these services and want them to survive.

redbird

This is a brief reminder that if you only want to talk to your representatives' voicemail, call outside local business hours. (Wherever you live, a congressmember's DC office is on East Coast time). After leaving a lot of messages in the last couple of months, I'd concluded that all my calls would go to voicemail, whether I called during the day or at 1 p.m.

Then one of Rep. Pressley's staffers answered the phone on Tuesday, which threw me off-script for a moment. As far as I know, they're counting calls, and your senator might care where in the state you're calling from, but a call at 7 a.m. or midnight counts as much as one during the day.

chestnut_pod

National Forests and Grasslands comprise 193 million acres of the protected lands in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. They're less famous than the national parks, so threats to them garner less attention, but they are equally as vital for the preservation of wildlife, clean air, and clean water. The Trump administration's order to hugely inflate U.S. logging puts sustainable forest harvest, the National Forest system, and all the wildlife and people who rely on National Forests to be well-cared-for and extant at risk. 5Calls has a script for encouraging your representatives to protect these often-overlooked elements of the U.S. conservation regime.

https://5calls.org/issue/national-forest-public-land-logging-deforestation/

redbird

I copied most of this from

siderea's journal, there's a lot more detail in her post:

AMERICANS WITH DEMOCRAT SENATORS,

tl;dr: call them TODAY, tell them you absolutely expect them to shut down the government by voting against the continuing resolution bill if the GOP doesn't provide massive concessions, and maybe even then.

And whatever position they take, take it to social media immediately and make sure everyone you can reach knows it. Especially if they agree. [I think this assumes you talk to a staffer rather than leaving voivemail.]

There's a script about the CR at 5calls.org, but it says to tell your senator to ask for concessions in the CR, and it doesn't look like any such concessions would be worth much.

Slightly longer explanation:

The GOP has enough votes to pass the CR bill in the House, but will need at least seven Democrats to vote for it for it to pass.

The CR bill is not hugely bad, in and of itself. But if it doesn't pass, the government shuts down.

Shut it down.

The prevaling sentiment on r/fednews – a Reddit sub for federal employees – in favor of a shutdown. "This is the only leverage the Dems have. If they don’t use it we are all toast"

chestnut_pod

The SAVE Act is a mass-disenfranchisement act which would require every voter to show proof of citizenship bearing their current name when registering to vote. The implications seem obvious.

If you have Republican congresspeople, or if your Democratic congresspeople have been shaky, please use this script to call and urge them to reject this bill.

Democrats in the House who've been wobbly include:
Shomari Figures
Josh Harder
Jared Moskowitz
April McClain Delaney
Kristen McDonald Rivet
Jared Golden
Donald Davis
Tom Suozzi
John Mannion
Susie Lee
Marcy Kaptur
Vicente Gonzalez
Henry Cuellar
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

And Democratic senators who voted for the Laken Riley Act:
Catherine Cortez Masto
John Fetterman
Ruben Gallego
Maggie Hassan
Mark Kelly
John Ossoff
Gary Peters
Jacky Rosen
Jeanne Shaheen
Elissa Slotkin
Mark Warner
Raphael Warnock

hermionesviolin

I ended up on some local Indivisible list and saw a post from last month that asserts there's value in calling your federal congressionals' DC and local office, because they don't cross-reference the call lists across offices and "Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics."

(This post also reiterates the advice I have seen elsewhere to only talk about 1 issue per call -- I think because of the way calls get tallied.)

I had been thinking of phonecalls as like, "Okay, I told my elected what I thought on this issue and now they know that and I shouldn't call again on future days unless it's REALLY important," but this is motivating me to call more often about stuff.

A longer excerpt of the post is behind the cut. ( Read more... )

redbird

I made these calls because in general, people are more likely to call either to ask for something, or tell the representative why the caller thinks they're wrong about something.

I was looking at 5calls.org today, looking for something I could usefully call state-level representatives about. The entry for fighting mass deportations started with something like, Gov. Healey is doing the right thing, ask your governor to do the same. So I picked up the phone and called Healey's office to thank her for not allowing local law enforcement to carry out this policy, and please stick to that.

I also called Rep. Pressley to state my strong support for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Senator Warren to thank her for her work with that agency. Warren doesn't need a message, canned or otherwise, to remind her that the CFPB is a good thing.

chestnut_pod

MyCivicWorkout.com (which I recommend generally as an excellent source of no-frills SMART tasks) has a call guide for those of you whose Congresspeople are probably not usually swayable, but may be moveable on restoring foreign aid. In particular, it has short call scripts for electeds who are usually anti-immigration, defense hawks, big on the private sector, and/or genuine free-trade neoliberals, which frame USAID as helpful to those causes.

The scripts are here.

chestnut_pod

Indivisible has call and email scripts loaded to ask senators to oppose the nominations of Kash Patel, RFK, Jr., Russell Vought, and Tulsi Gabbard to important executive positions.

Find them here. Both emailing and calling are very easy; Indivisible has a good UI. Once you have called and/or emailed, they provide social media chips for posting elsewhere, if desired.

I spent this morning working down the list and feel just slightly better.

chestnut_pod

5Calls is always a good resource for calling down the usual suspects on a given issue. They provide scripts and call numbers given your address.

Today I spent about 7 minutes calling my senators and my House rep about the federal funding freeze, and you can too here.

tanaqui

(This was unabashedly copied from whoever posted over at FFA. Thank you for making that post, anon. If you see this and ever want to cross-post here, we'd love to have you.)

Call your Democratic senators and urge them to push Schumer on appointing judges before Trump takes office.

When Obama stepped down for Trump in 2016, there were over 150 judge positions for Trump to fill, because Obama could not push any appointments past McConnal. The democrats would be idiots to let this slip by- pressure them as much as you can.

Celeste Pewter on Bluesky, a former Dem staffer, has provided two scripts to use in calls and emails- one for general Dem senators, and one specifically for New Yorkers whose senate rep is Schumer.

https://bsky.app/profile/celestepewter.bsky.social/post/3lal6chuevc23

( general script )

( Schumer script for New Yorkers: )

rydra_wong

In case anyone's interested:

https://fremedon.tumblr.com/post/763191310815576064/i-did-my-first-phone-bank-of-the-season-tonight

Extract:

I know we all hate the phone around here. But as a raging introvert with an audio processing disorder, I actually find phone banking hugely easier than almost any other phone interaction (and many in-person ones).

So I thought I’d write up a brief explainer of how it works.

chestnut_pod

The Affordable Connectivity Program, which subsidizes Internet access and therefore makes Internet connections possible for many people, is set to run out of funding in about a week. The end of this program will cause many low-income people to lose Internet access; in my state alone, 1 in 5 households get rebates from the ACP, and many of them would be unable to continue to afford Internet without that support.

There is a very easy call and email script set up here:
https://dontdisconnectusday.good.do/dontdisconnectusday2/callacp2/

tanaqui

toastykitten left a great comment on our last check in post about two actions you can take to support pediatric cancer care.

Quoting from the post:

As pediatric cancers are very rare, there is often very little research and funding available, leaving many families stranded for support and care. [...] There are a few things that this community is asking support for:

1. Renewal of the Gabriella Miller 2.0 Kids First Research Act - this is the year it sunsets. This act supports funding and data gathering for kids with pediatric cancers and rare diseases.
2. Co-sponsor/support the Give Kids a Chance Act, HR3433, which provides for combinations of new cancer drugs for kids with cancer. This one does not cost taxpayers any money.

Both of these have been supported by both Republicans and Democrats, but there is a lack of awareness, as it's not an easy topic to broach for many people. My House Rep Swalwell, has pledged his commitment. So if you are so inclined, please send a message to your legislators!

tanaqui

satsuma left a comment on our sticky post flagging up S.2767 - SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act.

This legislation would change the amount an individual on SSI can save from $2,000 to $10,000, and the amount a family can save from $3,000 to $20,000. It would also adjust the limit for inflation in the future and exclude retirement savings.

This would ensure people on SSI aren't always teetering on the edge of disaster if they have just one unexpected expense, such as needing a repair to their assistive technology or needing to move home, as well as helping family members move into work or accept better jobs (or marry their long-term partners!) without risking the loss SSI benefits in the family.

There's more information in this article.

chestnut_pod

The EARN IT Act is the latest threat to open expression and privacy online. It is yet another anti-LGBT, anti-sex-worker, anti-privacy bill that supposedly aims to protect children, while actually making the situation worse. In this case, it would remove ability to send end-to-end encrypted messages: the end to privacy online.

Despite purporting to protect children from sexual exploitation, the EARN IT Act in fact will make online platforms less able to report and remove child pornography. Making platforms liable for content hosted on them actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM, because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on the platform to search for and deal with. In the meantime, it will destroy Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the part that the ACLU regards as “foundational to modern online communications.” In destroying end-to-end encryption, EARN IT will also destroy the Internet as we know it, and continue chipping away at the right to privacy. It will also encourage platforms and far-right interest groups to label anything having to do with sexual health and sexual expression as dangerous pornography, ushering in an era of censorship and repression under the name of keeping children safe, all the while actually making the Internet less able to cope with the very real problem of CSEM. The EARN IT Act has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country, and for good reason. It is based on fundamental misunderstandings of the law and reality.

Tumblr user

fullhalalalchemist has a much longer and more comprehensive description of the bill's aims and failings, as well as a bibliography of news analysis of the bill; I encourage you to go read it.

In order to contact your senators to prevent this bill's passing, you can:

- Call the Congressional hotline at: 202-224-3121
- Email your representatives in the House and Senate
- Send a Resistbot text-letter already written for you. Text SIGN PVLKLV to 50409.

gingicat

Here's a petition:
https://defundboscops.org/petition

This is from an email I received from Youth Justice and Power Union, but it looks like they have a lot of sponsors:
https://www.defundboscops.org/organizations

Message for 2021:
We are in the midst of a national uprising that is calling on us to be steadfast in our defense of Black lives.
Last year, we launched the Defund Boscops campaign, giving the Boston City Council and Mayor the opportunity to join us in taking action. Their response was to placate our demands with cuts to overtime and shuffling money around within the police department.
This year, we demand accountability. The call to action remains the same: defund the police, invest in our communities.

There's a rally on Saturday June 26 at City Hall, and phone banking on June 23-24 at noon.
https://www.defundboscops.org/signup

chestnut_pod

NDAs play a huge role in enforcing silence around discrimination and harassment and are particularly beloved of tech and entertainment companies. Pinterest, for example, famously bound many of its BIPOC employees with NDAs that prevented them from speaking out about pervasive racist harassment at the company, and NDAs also restricted many women in the entertainment industry from speaking out on MeToo matters. NDAs act as, essentially, a loophole in federal whistleblower law, threatening people who want to speak up about poor treatment at the hands of past employers with loss of pay and possible legal action. Read more about NDAs at the Guardian here.

In 2018, California passed SB 820, which specifically bans NDAs in cases of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sex discrimination. SB 331, or the Silenced No More Act, seeks to complement this bill by banning NDAs in all cases of workplace harassment and discrimination, including along axes of race, disability, age, and religion. SB 331 has passed the State Senate and now faces the Assembly.

If you're in California, please contact your Assemblymember (find out who they are here) and tell them to support the Silenced No More Act. Find a script below for calling, writing, or emailing.

You can also send a ResistBot message by texting PKLNMK to 50409.

( Call and/or Email Script )

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Page Summary

petra - Trump must abide by SCOTUS in the case of Abrego Garcia: Contact your Representative
rydra_wong - If you can't make phone calls -- or if you can
chestnut_pod - Encourage reps to defend library funding
redbird - phone call timing
chestnut_pod - Encourage reps to protect National Forests against reckless logging
redbird - action: call Democratic senators to vote against continuing resolution
chestnut_pod - Call script to object to SAVE Act
hermionesviolin - on calling both DC and local offices
redbird - thank-you calls
chestnut_pod - Call script for restoration of US foreign aid
chestnut_pod - Call and email scripts: oppose Trump's appointees
chestnut_pod - Call script for federal funding
tanaqui - Action: Urge Democratic senators to push Schumer to appoint judges before Trump takes over
rydra_wong - Guide to phone-banking
chestnut_pod - Call Congress to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program
tanaqui - Actions: support for pediatric cancer care
tanaqui - Action: Contact your reps about S.2767 - SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act
chestnut_pod - Blocking the EARN IT Act
gingicat - defunding the police in Boston
chestnut_pod - CA only: sticking it to tech with SB 331

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Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Links and Positive Action for the next Four Years

Entries tagged with phone calls

Trump must abide by SCOTUS in the case of Abrego Garcia: Contact your Representative

If you can't make phone calls -- or if you can

Encourage reps to defend library funding

phone call timing

Encourage reps to protect National Forests against reckless logging

action: call Democratic senators to vote against continuing resolution

Call script to object to SAVE Act

on calling both DC and local offices

thank-you calls

Call script for restoration of US foreign aid

Call and email scripts: oppose Trump's appointees

Call script for federal funding

Action: Urge Democratic senators to push Schumer to appoint judges before Trump takes over

Guide to phone-banking

Call Congress to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program

Actions: support for pediatric cancer care

Action: Contact your reps about S.2767 - SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act

Blocking the EARN IT Act

defunding the police in Boston

CA only: sticking it to tech with SB 331

Profile

May 2025

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